Movie Age (1927)

PAGE 10 MOVIE AGE Will Film Industry Have To ‘Pull a Henry Ford?’ Playing Up of Grease Paint, Soulful Organists and Elaborate Presentation Acts Making Silent Drama More ‘Silent.’ By DAVID F. BARRETT Will the motion picture industry have to pull a Henry Ford? That very pertinent question has been asked by close observers of the in¬ dustry who have been watching the trend of public entertainment in the metropolitan first run and have noted the gradual transition whereby so-called motion picture palaces have so sub¬ merged feature pictures one can hardly recognize them ’ in the theatre’s adver¬ tising or printed program. Today in all the key cities the firstrun picture houses have an atmosphere of grease paint, chattering chorus girls, noisy stage hands, long haired orchestra leaders and soulful organists while the silent drama was never more silent! The movie as such is rapidly passing as a headline entertainer, and the motion pic¬ ture men have swung the ax that is sev¬ ering the head of a goose that laid sev¬ eral billion dollars of golden eggs dur¬ ing the past twenty years. Two years ago Henry Ford was sit¬ ting on top of the motor world. Today he has just finished scrapping a model car that put him in the billionaire class and was turned out at the astounding rate of 15,000,000 in nineteen years. Ford was forced to scrap a billion dol¬ lar idea over night because the public taste changed. What will the moving picture industry have to do to win the place in the sun that atmospheric pro¬ logues, symphonic orchestras, featured organ solists and colorful and spicy roadshows have grabbed from it? It is not so long ago that the public was satisfied with a good feature pic¬ ture, a comedy and newsreel accom¬ panied by a fairly good orchestra. And just the day before that, the hardworked piano player furnished the music for most motion picture theatres. And exhibitors made fortunes giving their patrons just that kind of show for a price they could afford to pay often. But today the motion picture is lost in the shuffle at the leading first-run theatres. And the leading lights in the motion picture industry are spending up¬ wards of $6000 per week for high-class acts to put the films farther into the background. To the man on the street it is more than perplexing. What will be the final answer? Put the question to the owners or managers of any of your first run thea¬ tres anywhere and they will give you the same answer. “The theatre owners have been forced to employ the stage in improving their entertainment because of the pic¬ ture situation. The theatre owner does not make the pictures. He must depend upon what the producing companies send him,” you will be told. Then he will quickly explain that he doesn’t mean to infer that the motion pictures are growing weaker, but that the public’s taste has been cultivated to expect more and more from their mo¬ tion pictures, and it is humanly impos¬ sible to assure every picture being a good one. Some are fine, some are fair and some are not so good. But the picture palaces with their tre¬ mendous investments must run every week, and they must make a profit every week — if possible. The natural result has been the management has built up its stage show to hold up the poorer pic¬ tures, and have so played up their stage features in advance publicity that their patrons today regard the feature pic¬ tures as of but secondary consideration. In St. Louis for instance the Mis¬ souri and Ambassador, operated by Skouras Brothers, who are allied with Paramount in the operation of the houses named, have headlined Brooke Johns at the Missouri Theatre and have just imported Herbert Rawlinson from Hollywood to tone up the Ambassador’s shows. Johns’ personality brought about a 30 per cent increase in the average attend¬ ance at the Missouri and Rawlinson has made a good start toward a similar goal at the down-town house. And so it goes — but how much farther? National’s Emergency Service Proves Popular Since the National Theatre Supply Co. announced a 24-hour service poli¬ cy in all of its branches with night or emergency telephone numbers, there have been scores of reports of preven¬ tion of shut-downs. Quick action in furnishing relief equipment, according to the reports, have saved thousands of dollars. Remarkable Line-Up Of Accessories For MetroGoldwyn-Mayer Shorts “Get the public into the theatres” is the phrase which characterizes the ac¬ cessory support that Metro-GoldwynMayer will supply exhibitors playing MG-M Short Features. Everything of known value that an exhibitor can use to capitalize the short subjects on his program is being given the greatest con¬ sideration and will be supplied on each release. The Hal Roach comedies, ten starring “Our Gang,” ten starring Charlie Chase, ten starring Max Davidson and the ten All Star comedies featuring Stan Laurel, Jimmy Finlayson, Viola Richard, Martha Sleeper, Oliver Hardy and other head¬ liners — all will be supported by a stock one sheet, a subject one sheet, subject three sheet, eight 11x14 lobby cards, a subject slide, ten black and white stills and special music cue sheet. In addition a press sheet will be is¬ sued on each release of the above series. Each press sheet will include, in addition to a wealth of publicity and exploita¬ tion material, an abundance of adver¬ tising and publicity mats. Lists Month’s Bookings On a Handy Calendar Charles L. Hyde, who manages the Grand theatre in Pierre, S. Dak., has found an effective, yet inexpensive means of keeping his patrons informed of his coming shows. Each month he prints a calendar, nine by six on card¬ board. This is done in red ink, and then in black he fills in the attraction for each day of the month. To make it more useful, so that it will be retained throughout the month, he has a perfor¬ ation at the top with which to hang it up, and a small calendar of the past month and another for the coming one placed in the two upper corners. Ball Hitting Contest For “Slide, Kelly, Slide” Bill Jacobs, Publix exploiteer in Kan¬ sas City, arranged a ball-hitting contest for men and a ball throwing contest for women in connection with the presenta¬ tion of “Slide, Kelly, Slide,” at the Royal. It took place between the prac¬ tices of the teams at the Kansas City ball park and when the crowds were ready for the game. The announcer told the spectators of the contest and mentioned the picture. Moving pictures were taken of the event and the shots were inserted into the newsreels at the Newman and Royal theatres.